In this week’s TribCast, Ross, Elise, Ben and Brandi discuss the issues framing Texas politics this week — education, immigration and campaign finance numbers.
state agencies
Posted in
State Government
TribBlog: New Doc at Workers’ Comp
After the exodus of at least half a dozen employees and swirling questions about its lack of enforcement against unscrupulous doctors, the Division of Workers’ Compensation has put a new man in charge of the investigations. The former executive director of the Texas Medical Board, Dr. Donald Patrick, started Monday.
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Public Education
TribBlog: Not Cool With School
Texans overwhelmingly reject the way the State Board of Education sets requirements for textbooks and curriculum, which ignited a nationwide controversy earlier this year, according to a statewide survey the Texas Freedom Network released today.
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Criminal Justice
Data App: Personal Finance
Politicians, candidates and other state officers are required to disclose their personal finances, to discourage conflicts of interest and, according to the law, “strengthen the faith and confidence of the people of this state in state government.” Yet getting these documents isn’t easy, so we’ve put all 3,070 available online.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Age of Innocence
More than 120 college students worked 12,300 hours-plus on Innocence Project of Texas cases from 2007 to 2009, according to the Task Force on Indigent Defense. As student participation has increased, so have exonerations.
Posted in
Energy
Alternating Current
Since 1999, when then-Gov. George Bush signed a law that deregulated the Texas electricity market, a debate has raged about whether and how much the move has benefitted ordinary Texans. Who’s right?
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Health care
High Prescribers
A Houston psychiatrist who uses clinically controversial brain scans to diagnose everything from anxiety to marital discord. A Plano music therapist who believes his Peruvian pan flute tunes cure mental illness. And a Beaumont child psychologist reprimanded for continuing to prescribe to a proven drug abuser. These physicians have written more prescriptions for potent antipsychotic drugs to the state’s neediest patients than any other doctors in Texas.
Posted in
Higher Education
TribBlog: Not OK With the KKK
University of Texas President Bill Powers has decided it’s time to rid the campus of a name that is a reminder of white hoods and racist atrocities: Ku Klux Klan leader William Stewart Simkins.
Posted in
Energy
TribBlog: Fracktiousness in Fort Worth
Anger and fear were on display at a public meeting the Environmental Protection Agency convened in Fort Worth to discuss a natural gas drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing.
Posted in
State Government
Faking the Grade
Last school year, the Texas Education Agency implemented a new “growth measure” purported to reward schools for improving student performance — even if they still fail state tests. The effect on state accountability ratings was immediate and dramatic: The number of campuses considered “exemplary” by the state doubled, to 2,158. But a new analysis shows the projections of future student success may be wrong as much as half the time.
